The Hellenic school of Thessaloniki-1858

[kostas68]

Pandora was a well known monthly literary magazine that was published in Athens from 1849-1871.In the article below,from 15 January 1858,we read about the Hellenic school of Thessaloniki and the speech of his principal,K.Nikoklis.Notice how many times he uses the term <Macedonian> and its derivatives to design the regional identity of the Greek inhabitants of Thessaloniki.Can the Scopians show us evidence of anyone of their ancestors who called himself <Macedonian> at that time?Or can they prove that in the schools of Scopje the pupils were taught in 1850 ancient Macedonian history?

<We learn this today,from the below speech,given during the last exams by the known to us principal of the Thessalonian school K.Nikoklis.This school is organized like our Hellenic schools.There is taught furthermore history,especially the history of Macedonia and not unjustifiable.Because Macedonia,feeling first of all the need for the unification of the whole Greece,attached carefully her pieces and brought glorious the name of the Greek race in the edges of Asia>.
<The Macedonians proved themselves always earnest friends of education.Prior to the liberation struggle they had schools and men educated and authors as well.Today,in the highest university,in the rest of the other faculties and in the goverment of free Greece they offer their mental contribution>.


Some passages from the speech of the school principal: <This holy day,girded by a religious sacredness,has another formality for Thessaloniki and her Macedonian youth...>
<... in the same day is celebrated officially the mental progress of the young Macedonians...>
<...every Macedonian must always have in his mind...>
<...it's possible,Macedonian friends,to become happy in the future,using your own instances...>
<So what expects this once glorious city,in order to look not worst than its bright past and to be classified in the future amongst Athens,Smyrna,Constantinople?Education,dear brothers,education real,stabilized,moral......in order not to suffer exactly the same as our ancient ancestors the Macedonians,who were called barbarians by our Greek brothers,due to their inferior civilization,allthough they had so many virtues,so many trophies,so many bright political acts.Indeed,although the Macedonian tribe was so great and left so admirable achievements,nothing else is praised by history,this unbridable judge of the human acts,but only whatever contributed to the hapiness of humanity,to the ennoblement of the nation and to the spread of the education and the civilization of that time.How many Macedonian kings existed from Karanus till Alexander the Great?Nonetheless,very few of them are praised,few decorate the pages of the bright Macedonian history,and only those who participating in the Greek culture and civilization spreaded these to their subjects,contributing royally to the ennoblement and the education of the whole nation>.
<...Alexander,the great king of the Greeks>.


<Only our schools are common for everybody,because there are studying south and north Macedonians,Thessalians,Thracians,Bulgarians,Alban ians...>
<Only the education,philomath Macedonians...>



<You will be also happy,old metropolis of the Macedonians...>
<Your citizens like tall palm trees will blow from now the fruits of the love of the education and the love of the beauty,fruits that will contribute to the progress of the youth and to the mature reception of the newest Greeg civilization>.


<But if someone bethinks that out of the five pupils of that grade.....the three,of whom the homeland expects more went to Greece for the sake of the highest education and the scientific course...>
<If it's sure,dear Thessalonians,that we expect from there our enlightening and the civilization,where is the seat of the enlightement and the cradle of the Greek nationality,if it's true that glorious Athens as in the ancient times are walking and today with gigantic steps to become the school not only of Greece but of the entire Greek nation in the East and in the West,who doesn't consider the studies in Athens of four beloved to me pupils,four good and wealthy offsprings of the homeland,Hariton,Lysandros,Markos and Leonidas,as a good omen for a more auspicious future for the schools of Macedonia?>


<May it never happen to graduate from the schools of Thessaloniki,the proud in the old time of its devoutness and Orthodoxy Thessaloniki,a sophomoric and wiseacre youngster,who renounce his holy and unpoluted religion...This will be an inextinguishable blotch in the character and the nationality of the young Macedonians>


The pupils were taught <history of Macedonia,from the Alexander I succesor's era till the destruction of the Macedonian state>


Here we read that in that school were studying some non Greek pupils:One from Serbia and one from...Scopje.



<Don't show yourselves unworthy of the expectations of your homeland and of the bright past of our Macedonian ancestors>.

http://books.google.com/books?lr=&hl...E%BD#PPA453,M1

[edessa]

Excellent post, another punch to the skopies' face! I can't wait for their insane government to collapse and for them to run to the nearest neighbour proclaiming new identities ala former ex president

[Truth Bearer]

Can someone please send this to John Shea who claimed in his book that Macedonia had no Greeks until after 1913??!!!
Great find Kosta well done mate!!!

[kostas68]

I would like to know what history were taught in 1858 the pupils in the Slavic schools of Scopje,Ohrid,Monastir e.t.c.The history of Stephan Dushan and Kralj Marko or the history of Tsar Samouil and Symeon?What were the ancestors of the Scopians back then,Serbomani or Bugaromani?I don't think they were taught ancient Macedonian history,the names of Macedonia and Alexander did sound at that time as strange and foreign to them as the names of Montezuma and the Aztecas.

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

Outstanding thread Kosta. Excellent posts.